The high court said it will rule on the case of a Virginia man who was convicted of selling videos of pit bulls fighting. He had advertised his videos in Sporting Dog Journal, an underground publication that reports on illegal dogfights.

Wednesday April 22, 2009, 12:34 pm
Selling vidoes to make money? Videos of animals fighting - animal abuse? This man should go to jail. If one wants to raise awareness of animal abuse, by all means take 'underground' videos and photos, but to sell them for money? Uuuggghhhh. What good will the income he gets from these horror videos do for the animals? Who profits by these sales? If this is allowed it opens the door for all sorts of horror, and the ones who certainly won't benefit are the animals! Free speech? Try another one. Too many clever and dastardly lawyers in my opinion. Why did he not send these videos to PETA/HSUS etc. and spilled the beans on the owners? This thing smells, and this man smells to high heaven. May God protect the animals from scum like this.

Wednesday April 22, 2009, 2:03 pm
Thanks Tom. The illegal dog fighting has got to have tougher laws against it and should carry a heavy sentence for anyone that participates in them. As far as selling the videos of dogs fighting that person should get jail time because he is just as guilty as the people who are putting on the fights.Our laws are not stiff enough for anyone that is abusing animals.If we made the jail time longer it might curtail some of the dog fighting and animal abuse.

Wednesday April 22, 2009, 3:30 pm
If it is illegal then that's it - its illegal. So next they will allow paedophiles to sell videos. What a pathetic justice system. I am not American but I get so fed up with hearing about the constitution and its amendments. Get with the 21st century. This man is an out and out criminal - and the worst kind - as he picks on subjects weaker than himself. he is probably a child abuser and a wife beater as well. Put him in jail and throw away the key. Sorry, but this gets me so, so very angry

Wednesday April 22, 2009, 5:43 pm
This is digusting. But watching the dogs fight IS free speech. Making the video IS free speech. Actually fighting the dogs is a CRIME and should be punished. You cannot "pick" what you want to be free speech or else someone else can pick what you watch.
Illegally fighting dogs has severe punishment as it should. Watching dogs fight has a greater punishment in the end.

Wednesday April 22, 2009, 11:41 pm
As much as I hate it, and at the risk of being screamed at, the Constitution has to be upheld. We just cannot afford to lose anymore of it, no matter what. They should however, go after the ones who are owning these dogs and dog fights. In a way, the videographer could be considered a reporter and is actually leading them to the real criminals. I could see a lot of dog fights being shut down this way, and perhaps child pornography could be handled the same way!

Thursday April 23, 2009, 6:08 am
There is no way this man was reporting or doing undercover work. He is a sick, twisted, pathetic excuse for a man who gets his jolly's from seeing animals tear each other apart. If he was an undercover reporter the footage would have been turned over to an appropriate agency. This man is complicit with the men that arrange the fights by selling the videos in an undercover magazine. The footage was only ever going to end up with other sick, twisted and pathetic excuses for men. NO-ONE can excuse what he did as free speech. All that happens now is that it drives the dog fights even more under cover so more difficult to shut down. I would willingly give up some free speech if it meant that dog fights and paedophilia was stopped - why wouldn't everybody? You cannot condone this in any way that will sound reasonable. This man broke the law. He needs to be jailed. Do NOT defend him.

Thursday April 23, 2009, 9:14 am
Here is a perfect example of where laws over rule common sense. Animal cruelty is a crime, looks like to me he would have just flim and animal cruelty act and be responsible for it or have to tell who was.. Why are we giving bad people so much lead way, do they give it to their victims, be it animal or human, NO they do not. These people net to be taken to court and proscuted and made examples of. Do it right and it might stop some of it. Right now no one care because they all think they can beat it. We need to make better laws because common sense doesn't rule anymore.... I think we have lost the ability to have love and compassion for our fellow man and animals.. I wish I could still teach so that I could tell more children...

Thursday April 23, 2009, 11:03 am
Selling these video's and making these video's should be stopped..and in my opinion has nothing whatsoever to do with free speech..It is a crime..it is wrong in every sense of the word wrong..Cruel to the animals..

Animals are being abused..as it the term free speech in this matter..And to those subjects who would derive any pleasure from watching the video's well..what can one say..Simple sick and twisted..

Thursday April 23, 2009, 2:13 pm
Susan I was not condoning nor did I say he was a reporter but rather taking a bad situation and getting something good out of it. Far too often, we are shown the disgusting minds and we have little we can do about it. It pus us at effect. Cause points can be found in anything, you just have to look and take the advantage to make things much better than what they are. You threaten this man with major jail time in exchange for who the real criminals are. That is the way to stop it from being ever videotaped again and it hopefully will make the dog fighter/owners think twice before putting their "pets" in another ring.

Friday May 1, 2009, 2:50 pm
I will stand beside the HSUS lawsuit in this situation. Snuff films are illegal (I have heard there are still some out there). They are not considered to fall under free speech. Killing and torture are the same no matter the species. Just my opinion...shared by many!

Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2.